A woman and three soldiers were killed Thursday when militants ambushed an army convoy in India-held Kashmir, police said.

The soldiers were returning from a search operation when the militants attacked their convoy, injuring six, three of whom later died.

The civilian woman was hit by a stray bullet and died, police said.

“Three army soldiers succumbed to their injuries at the army hospital in Srinagar,” said a police spokesman who asked not to be named.

Area superintendent of police Tahir Saleem told AFP the woman, who lived near where the ambush occurred in south IHK's Shopian district, was hit by crossfire.

The area was one of the main centres of violent protests last year against the killing of a popular militant leader in a gunbattle with Indian troops.

More than 90 civilians have been killed and thousands more injured in clashes between protesters and Indian government forces.

Clashes occur frequently in Kashmir between rebel groups and the roughly 500,000 Indian troops deployed in the region since 1989.